A man knows when he is growing old because he begins to look like his father.

A strangely reflective even melancholy day. Is that because unlike our cousins in the northern hemisphere Easter is not associated with the energy and vitality of spring but with the more subdued spirit of autumn?

Well because I have twin seven-year-old boys I enjoy the gift giving stuff a great deal. We do both Hanukkah and Christmas so it is a costly though extremely pleasing proposition.

It's fun when you start a movie because it's kind of like you get to go Christmas shopping... you get to make your wish list and you start thinking about what each character needs.

A lot of sequins for New Year's! Red green white - I fail at all of that because I'm always in black. But for Christmas I do love wearing cute dresses with tights and a pair of boots.

And of course there's so much music in and around our family. I had a piano during Christmas because it's obviously useful through the season. There are so many people songwriters who are around.

My mother died of metastatic colorectal cancer shortly before three P.M. on Christmas Day of 2008. I don't know the exact time of her death because none of us thought to look at a clock for a while after she stopped breathing.

Actually my mother and Alfie came for three weeks' Christmas vacation and stayed for 21 years. I guess my mother never went back because she was lonely.

I love Halloween trick or treating and decorating the house. And I love Thanksgiving because of the football and the fall weather. And of course I love Christmas - that's my favorite of all!

So we're considering doing a new Christmas album because there's been Christmas episodes since then and maybe finally do the version of 'The Most Offensive Song Ever' with lyrics intact.

I love Christmas not just because of the presents but because of all the decorations and lights and the warmth of the season.

There are some people who want to throw their arms round you simply because it is Christmas there are other people who want to strangle you simply because it is Christmas.

The main reason Santa is so jolly is because he knows where all the bad girls live.

I went back to work because someone had to pay for the groceries.

What I had to prove was that I had a dedication and a desire and a passion to do the work and everything else would fall in place because I have a vision that I want to portray and it did and I do it. I don't sell anything.

The security comes as an actor in knowing that you're not in control. If you try to control your career or how people perceive you you'll make yourself unhappy because life doesn't work like that. So much is luck. It's much better to let yourself off to think 'There's nothing I can do.'

You see my mother was a district nurse until she died when I was 14 and we used to move from time to time because of her work.

I like to talk about my obsession with french fries because I don't want people to think that 'Let's Move' is about complete utter deprivation. It's about moderation and real-life changes and ideas that really work for families.

When I was younger I probably didn't understand something basic about tact but I think it kept faint-hearted people at arm's distance and that's not such a bad thing because life is short and I know the kind of people I want to work with.

My wife whenever I'd go off to work and I'd be kind of anxious she'll say 'Remember have fun.' Oh I forgot thanks for the reminder. Because sometimes we do forget. We take it all too seriously and there's a lot of joy to be had wherever you are.

People of genius do not excel in any profession because they work in it they work in it because they excel.

Be glad of life because it gives you the chance to love to work to play and to look up at the stars.

I think the importance of doing activist work is precisely because it allows you to give back and to consider yourself not as a single individual who may have achieved whatever but to be a part of an ongoing historical movement.

I stayed away from mathematics not so much because I knew it would be hard work as because of the amount of time I knew it would take hours spent in a field where I was not a natural.